Fifteen years ago in Malmö, Sweden, animator Simon Flesser and programmer Magnus “Gordon” Gardebäck left their jobs at the now-defunct games studio Southend Interactive to strike out on their own. Tired of the fussy nature of console development, the pair staked their claim on , which in 2010 was regarded as one of the most exciting frontiers in games. Mashing their names together to form a portmanteau, Flesser and Gardebäck became Simogo, and a consistently wonderful, forward-thinking games studio was born.
Preserving a Golden Era of Mobile Gaming
The Simogo Legacy Collection represents the Swedish indie studio’s first seven games, released across its first five years (2010 to 2015). Because Apple’s constantly changing software standards mean developers must regularly update their games or see them rendered completely unplayable, Simogo had to make a choice: perpetually issue patches, or find a way to bring these quintessential mobile experiences to modern platforms.
Thank goodness Simogo decided on the latter. Like all of the studio’s work, this anthology is smartly designed. Its contents are arranged on a menu made to look exactly like a smartphone’s homescreen—except, you know, full of wonderful little games instead of horrid social media apps.
Great care has been taken to ensure you can play these titles no matter your setup. You can play on a screen with a controller, at a PC with a mouse and keyboard, or in portrait or landscape orientations. (My preference was to play on a Nintendo Switch with the Joy-Cons removed to perfectly replicate the original mobile phone experience.)
A Remarkable Streak of Hits
Oh, how these games remain remarkable all these years later.
Things begin humbly with Kosmo Spin, a cute little arcade diversion where your only goal is a high score. But Simogo’s ambition immediately begins to take shape with its next game, Bumpy Road—an arcade-style game about an old couple on a road trip, infused with surprising whimsy and melancholy. It serves as a minimalist love story for those who look for it.
After this, the studio is off to the races on an incredible streak that extends to this day:
- : A rhythm-based puzzle game filled with devilish glee.
- : A melancholic, frightening dive into Swedish folklore.
- : A slick, text-based thriller dripping with spy-fiction flair.
Eclectic and Interdisciplinary Influences
Simogo’s interests are wide-ranging. Flesser and Gardebäck have made a tradition of chronicling the eclectic influences behind each project on their website.
As a result, playing a Simogo game feels like getting a letter from your most eccentric friends. Imagine friends who spent months thinking about Patrick McGoohan’s surreal 1960s TV show , the work of graphic designer Sam Suliman, and Nintendo’s ill-fated , and then couldn’t help but write you a prose puzzle riffing on all of it using the typographic experimentation of . That is the Simogo experience.
The Verdict
Times have changed. Simogo has expanded beyond Flesser and Gardebäck, and their growing ambition has brought them back to the realm of modern console gaming with hits like the playable pop album and their puzzle-mystery magnum opus, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.
The brief, heady days of App Store brilliance are over; the ecosystem that allowed Simogo to initially flourish is essentially extinct. How fortunate it is that Simogo got the chance they did, that they are still with us, and that they assembled this inspiring little collection so we can play it in perpetuity.
These games, in all their varied playfulness, are full of longing: for a lover, for meaning, and for a chance to write your own ending. Play them and dream about a world where the mobile gaming landscape went entirely differently.
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